As the economic collapse of the last decade begins to fade from view, there are two questions scholars continue to ask: what are the lessons to learn from the crisis, and have we implemented them to avoid the next one? In his new book, "Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses - And Misuses - of History," Berkeley Professor Barry Eichengreen examines the history of both the Great Depression and the Great Recession as well as the policy lessons the country should take from them.

As one might expect, many similarities exist between the two crises: a housing boom, the advent of new financial instruments and forms of lending, Ponzi schemes, an increase in the general population's investment in the stock market, problematic monetary policy, and more.

The lead-up to each crisis, while contextually different, had many of the same properties. Yet because of our experience with the Great Depression, the fundamental restructuring of the financial system and the lessons learned about fiscal and monetary policies held for over half a century, and the difference between the crises lay in the response. Eichengreen proposes that our success in root-and-branch reform after the Great Depression hindered another effort at radical reform after the Great Recession, leading to a system that has exacerbated many of the structural issues that caused the latter economic downturn. The key is which lessons to take from history and how to correctly use (and not misuse) them.

Have the problems that led to the Great Recession been resolved? With the stock market booming and the economy as a whole growing, can fundamental reform be done?

Guest:

Barry Eichengreen, Author, “Hall of Mirrors: The Great Depression, The Great Recession, and the Uses- and Misuses-of History;” (Oxford University Press, January 2015); George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley